Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

About a month ago, I was really excited to tell you that I had taken a food photography class. The woman who taught the class was amazing. As I mentioned before, not only is she an incredible photographer, she makes everything from scratch, I mean everything – and she has three kids. Unbelievable. When I found out who was going to be teaching the class, I spent some time looking at her phenomenal blog, and there was one post that really struck me – it was a Peanut Butter Pie…

A few weeks earlier when we were back east in New York City, I remember looking at two of my favorite food blogger sites – foodgawker and tastespotting – and there were a ridiculous number of Peanut Butter Pies posted. Now, that is not completely unusual, because when there is a Daring Baker challenge, I often see many of the same dishes posted – but this was different, and it went on for days. When I saw the Peanut Butter Pie posted on Not Without Salt, I decided to read the post to see what was going on. A well-known blogger from NYC lost her husband. It was a sudden tragedy, just like what happened to a good friend of mine that I wrote about here. It brought me back to that place, that helpless place of not being able to do anything to help. Peanut Butter Pie was his favorite dessert – and not even days after he passed away, she made a Peanut Butter Pie in his memory. I had to do the same.

This recipe comes from my Aunt Marilyn, who is no longer with us. She was a very good cook, and my grandmother often used her recipes – such as this one. What I love about this recipe, is you can use all light ingredients, and you would never know – it is amazing. The added bonus is that it makes two. So, you can enjoy one right away, and freeze the other for a different occasion. I was happy to solve the Peanut Butter Pie mystery, until I figured out what actually happened – my heart goes out to her and her children.

Ingredients

1 box of chocolate teddy grahams

4 tablespoons butter

2-1/2 C creamy peanut butter (not natural)

8 oz. light cream cheese, softened

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1-1/2 cups low-fat milk

20 oz. light frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed

Hot fudge sauce or Nutella

Preparation

To make the crust, grind the teddy grahams in a food processor until fine. Transfer to a bowl and mix in melted butter. Press crust into 2 – 9″ glass pie plates, pressing up the sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Let the crust cool completely.

More than a great dessert, I am sure this will be a great conversation piece as well. Everybody will be asking for the recipe or asking for another slice, or perhaps a bring-at-home slice…Gee! I’d better start making this!